The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-06-25
THE ToYMAKERs.


THE ToYMAKERs.
Heidelberg Correspondence Phila. Times.
A half days journey from Heidelberg
brings the traveller into region as full ol
quaint interest and strange sights as any
in Germany, the land of toys, the Some
berg district of the Thuringian forest.
This world apart in the universe of indus
try is known very well, indeed, to a GER
tain class of Americans, the toy importers,
better than to the importers of any other
nation. The American purchasers are the
only ones who come TO the Thuringian
forest TO give orders on the spot, "com-
pose" new dolls out of half dozen differ
ent sorts, order toys by the hundred gross
and vanish to return like the swallows at
the end of a year. As long ago as 1876
We Americans bought in this small forest
nest toys to the value of nearly half mil
lion dollars, and in 1880 our purchases had
increased to nearly million dollars, and
yet how few of us, when we buy a crying
doll for Christmas present, woody dog, a
nodding donkey, "farm-yard," or any of
the thousand toys made of wood, papier
mache or wax, think of the strange little
world among the Thuringian hills whence
our familiar objects come.
Back at the beginning of the fourteenth
century the little town Of Sonneberg had
won for itself municipal rights and sent
largo quantities Of wooden wares to the
Nurnberg Jahrmarkt, had guild of its
own before the close of the century and
continued for more than four hundred
years the gradual development of the toy
making branch which has made its pro
ductions known in all the civilized coun-
tries of the world from Russia, whittier
Sonneberg sends Easter emblems by the
thousand gross, to California, where Some
berg is represented upon every Christmas
tree.
MODERN TOYS.
With the opening of our own century
came new era for Sonneberg, when
workingman adapted papler mache to the
use Of the toy trade Until then it had
been used in Paris for ornaments and in
the monasteries for figures cf the saints.
Henceforward it was to take up its abode
in the nursery and play-room. This in
vention revolutionized the trade of Some
berg. Any one could do the work required
by the pew material, wheFeaa the use Of
the materials before employed had required
skill, and, therefore, an apprenticeship.
By degrees the whole population, from the
decrepit great-grandfather to the tiny pri.
mary school child, was passed into the
service, and to-day the only skilled work
men are those who turn or carve legs for
toy animals or the heads of jumping jacks,
and the carpenters who build tiny wooden
stables, theatres, kitchens, shops, ETC., such
as the children Of our wealthier American
families delight in.
As years went by the factory system be-
gan ia creep into aouneherg as everywhere
else. The first factory was met with a
popular demonstration of so vigorous
character in the revolutionary year 1913
that the proprietor was obliged to abandon
his enterprise; but presently the crying
doll was introduced, and from that moment
the battle against the factory system was
lost The crying doll became the staple
production of Sonneberg, and its produc-
tion employs almost as many workers as
that of all other toys taken together.
NO FURTHER CHANGES,
These are the two great changes which
five centuries have wrought In the toy in
dustry of Sonneberg, the use of papier
maohe and the introduction of crying dolls,
and there Is small likelihood of other i'm
portant changes in the near future. The
merchants are said to have no love for their
business whatever, the manufacturers are
conservative beyond belief and the work
ingmen have no money with which to ex-
pertinent There is no industrial museum
In the district, and the manufacturers op-
pose the foundation of one because each is
afraid that the others may appropriate his
models. The solitary manufacturer who
has patented toy or two and proposed
some wholesale improvements of technique
is so cordially hated that he employs q pTi.
yate Waterman for his establishment and
does not venture out alone at night, Yet
within the narrow limits Of its method of
production Sonneberg has the most mar
velous array of varied toys. Thus there
are sample rooms with 10000 to $4,000
sample toys, and many Sonneberg drum
mer carries in his sample book 1900 to A.
900 pictures and photographs of the pro-
ductions of his firm or firms. There is a
sad side, too, to the diversity; for it is all
the product of the workers, Of whose pow
erty no Que who has not visited the town
can form an adequate idea. Yet these
poor workers have no protection for their
right to their own inventions, and the only
for their ingenuity consists in
the increased number of orders during the
weeks or months in which the invention re-
mains novelty. Nor is there any art or
school in the district. Every
worker must learn as he may and take the
THE ToYMAKERs.
The workers are of two sorts, the factory
hands and the masters who work at
home with the help of an employe or tgo
and of their own families. The position of
the master varies little from that of the
other workmep. The master occupies a
cottage aud has potato patch on the steep,
stony hillside. But the cottage and potato
patch are usually heavily mortgaged, and
in order to pay interest and taxes the fam
lily usually rent the best rooms and live in
the most wretehed closet-like dens. The
quarter of Sonneberg where the workers
live is the oldest of the city After the
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